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Anticholesterol Activity of α-Lipoic Acid

Abstract

SINCE α-lipoic acid is known to affect lipid metabolism, we have investigated the effect of this acid on the lipid content of plasma, liver and aorta from rabbits which had been fed on a diet containing an excess of cholesterol1. Rabbits weighing 2.5–3 kgm. were divided into four groups, each containing five animals. Group A, the control group, received a diet of ordinary commercial rabbit food. Each animal in groups B, C and D received this diet, supplemented for seven days with 1 gm. daily of cholesterol mixed with 9 gm. of shredded carrot. Group B received no further treatment. Group C received daily intramuscular injections of α-lipoic acid (5 mgm./kgm. of the sodium salt in saline). Group D received the same treatment as C, except that the injections were not started until the day after the high cholesterol diet had been stopped. After fifteen days from the start of the experiment, the animals were killed by bleeding, and samples of blood, liver and aorta were taken aseptically and weighed. Total lipids, phospholipids and neutral lipids were determined by the method of Bloor2, and cholesterol by the method of Schoenheimer and Sperry3.

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References

  1. Duff, G. G., and Meissner, G. F., Amer. Med. Assoc. Arch. Pathol., 47, 329 (1954).

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  2. Bloor, W. B., “Biochemistry of the Fatty Acids” (Reinhold, New York, 1943).

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  3. Schoenheimer, R., and Sperry, W. M., J. Biol. Chem., 106, 745 (1934).

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ANGELUCCI, L., MASCITELLI-CORIANDOLI, E. Anticholesterol Activity of α-Lipoic Acid. Nature 181, 911–912 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/181911b0

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